Trinity Lutheran went on the road Friday night for a cross-county matchup at Medora, and the Cougars came out on top with a 48-30 victory.

It was slow-paced game to start out. Both teams took their time offensively, but not a lot of shots were falling.

Medora’s zone defense was troubling Trinity at first, but the Cougars were able to break it enough times to find some easy shots inside.

As for Medora, a jumper from Eli Sturgill, one free throw from Shepard Earl and a nice cut that resulted in an easy Earl layup gave the Hornets a 5-4 lead after the first quarter.

“I was pleased with the way we competed,” Medora head coach Mark Morin said.

“I was pleased with our effort. I still don’t think we’ve put it all together. We can play a lot better than that. That’s probably the best four quarters we’ve put together.”

Trinity turned things around in the second quarter. Sage Broughton broke the ice from beyond the 3-point line, and Mitchell Hackman added another triple later in the quarter.

Jacob Conrad had a nice offensive rebound from his own shot that he laid up and in, and Kade Hill got a steal and took it coast-to-coast for a layup of his own.

The Cougars won the second quarter 14-6 and took a 18-11 lead into halftime. Broughton led Trinity with seven points and Earl led Medora with seven as well, five of those coming from the free-throw line.

“I thought Medora did a nice job keeping their zone in shape,” Trinity head coach Brad Dickey said.

Trinity had the advantage on the glass all game long. The Cougars had a 18-10 advantage and halftime and wound up with a 30-19 advantage for the whole game.

Trinity switched to a 1-3-1 zone to start the second half, placing the lengthy 6-foot-4 Broughton at the top of it to make things difficult on Medora’s guards on the perimeter.

“It created some new turnovers,” Dickey said. “I thought our man-to-man was good in the first half, it just created a slower-paced game.”

It worked out for the Cougars as they jumped out to a 28-12 lead in the first three minutes of the quarter. Medora’s Dawson Cornett hit a 3-pointer to put an end to their run, cutting into the deficit to make it 28-15.

“Initially, they had the tall kid out top and that kind of us freaked us out,” Morin said. “Once we started getting the ball in the middle, we didn’t settle.”

Broughton banked in a jumper off an inbounds play in the final seconds of the quarter to give Trinity a 30-15 lead heading into the fourth.

Cornett hit his second three of the game to begin the fourth quarter to pull the Hornets within 12. It took until the fourth quarter for Medora’s second leading scorer Braxton McCory to get on the board. He was struggling with his shot but finally got a 3-pointer to fall to cut into Trinity’s lead again.

But Conrad had a nice closing quarter for the Cougars. He converted an and-one, in addition to finishing some other driving layups.

Conrad finished with 14 points to lead the Cougars to their eventual 18-point victory.

“He did a really nice job filling some gaps,” Dickey said. “He found some holes in their zone.”

Broughton added 11, Jacob Sabotin had eight and Hackman and Kade Hill each had five. Caleb Williams finished with three points and Kowan Gross had two.

As for Medora, Earl led the team with 14 as well. Cornett contributed eight, McCory six and Sturgill two.

“Dawson and Braxton were both getting good looks,” Morin said. “We’re getting the ball into Shepard early, and he’s got to reward us with making good moves.”

Trinity, now 6-8 on the season, will play later tonight at home against Switzerland County.

“Switzerland County has some really nice players,” Dickey said. “We’ve been scouting their plays, and I hope our guys come out and show their knowledge from this week.”

As for Medora, the Hornets’ game originally scheduled tonight against Crothersville was postponed, so they won’t be in action again until Feb. 3 when they play New Washington at home.